Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Evin arrived in the entryway of Mt. Lor and landed on a thin layer of ash. He looked at the ground and saw another faded pair of footprints walking into the entrance (which was basically a large hole dug on the ground with vaguely shaped steps), but not walking out. He concluded that she was still inside and breathed out a sigh of relief.

According to Albin, she should be finished with the place in about an hour, so Evin just needed to wait till then and he would have a powerful ally on his side. With Bella in tow, Evin wouldn't have anything to worry about when challenging the Unspoken area.

"But still, it's so damn hot here…"

The entrance was located on the base of the mountain, near the end of the forest. From the fact that it was heading downwards, suggested that whatever trial the students had to undergo occurred underground. Evin didn't really know how volcanoes worked, but from the fact that the hole was emitting immense amounts of heat to the surrounding area, suggested that there was lava running below the ground here.

And even though he expected it to be hot since he was going to be visiting a volcano, he felt that nothing could've prepared him for such an environment. But still, he was a mage. Although he couldn't control the heat in the air, he could still create a cold breeze to keep his surroundings comfortable.

And as he waited, he pulled out the device with the orb that he got from the Tunnels. Just as Amera suggested, Evin asked about the item from Albin, and the latter explained to him that it was a failed experimental device that the Temple Cultists worked on. Apparently, it was used to increase the chances of turning a normal animal into a mana-beast through the orb. He told Evin to not touch the orb carelessly, as it was would send pulses of mana to his core and overwork it. But he did tell Evin to carry it around just in case, as it might be useful for him later on.

Like this, thirty minutes passed without much happening.

<Look over there,> the Voice interrupted his thoughts.

Evin put away the device and looked at the forest with squinting eyes. He made out the outlines of a few students who were walking out of the forest and were headed towards the Entrance to the Volcano. Since Evin was invisible, they couldn't see him. Slowly, Evin stopped affecting the air around him and started floating. Before the students arrived, he made sure to erase the footsteps he created as well.

"Look at the footprints here, I think he's inside," one of the students said as they approached.

"Finally," another replied. "The fucker moves around too much. First he went to the Shelter, then to the Infirmary, but after that, he appeared on the Palace. Good thing we waited a bit to use the Find Person Card, so we can catch him during whatever trial he's going through."

From the contents of the exchange, Evin realized that they were talking about him.

"Alright, he should've just arrived here, so I'm going to call in the others," one of them said and cast a spell towards the sky.

Ten minutes later, forty students appeared from the forest and set up an ambush outside the Mountain's entrance. Some set up camp, expecting Evin to take at least half a day to conquer the trial, while some others were setting up various traps around the place.

They did all this, while not knowing that their target was floating above them and observing the whole process.

<Huh… If I divide 300 by 40, then it would only be about 8 gold coins per person, right?> Evin pondered, as he observed the situation from above. <I mean, I guess it's a nice sum to possess, but it's surely not worth whatever's happening here, right?>

He didn't really expect an answer from the Voice, but it was apparently in a good enough mood today to hold a conversation with Evin.

<Perhaps Decatur promised them to pay for the tuition of every person involved?> the Voice offered with a chuckle.

<Then the total number would be 12000 gold?> Evin realized and shook his head. <It truly is a pain in the ass to fight against a rich and influential person… Sigh, he was fine for the past 2 months, so why did he suddenly become so active?>

<Gehenne warned you, didn't he? That he would give his brother full rein over Greater Ankelite,> the Voice said gleefully. <Well, now you know what happens when you let an egotistical child run a county.>

<But Gehenne should've predicted this, right? After all, at least some of those exalted rumors about him should be true?> Evin was still puzzled. <Surely he wouldn't leave the fates of the thousands of people living here in Decatur's hands.>

<Of course, he knew that something like this might happen and must've prepared measures to prevent the County from going to shit entirely. If I was him, I'd at least leave a trusted assistant with Decatur, who would be responsible for taking care of things in emergencies, such as his brother using the entirety of the County's tax money to bribe students…> the Voice said, before chuckling amusedly.

Evin thought about the two brothers and decided that it wasn't worth the time and effort of thinking.

He silently approached the traps that the students have made and started disabling them one by one. Most of them were simple paper Talismans with various runes drawn on them, so Evin just had to slightly rip the papers, or put a hole through them and no one would be wiser.

Paper Talismans were easy to create (if a mage was sufficiently good at drawing) and carry around, but it didn't change the fact that it was made of paper. An indiscriminate wide area attack like Decatur's Hailstorm was a very good method against people who relied on Talismans, and the same was true for spells that created extreme heat.

Obviously, Talismans could be made with other materials, like metals and hardwoods, but that mostly applied to the field of Magical engineering and not Runes, so Evin wasn't very familiar with them. For him, they were basically just Talismans made of wood and metal, but he was sure that the engineering enthusiasts would have many thoughts regarding this opinion.

With such carefree thoughts, Evin finished disabling practically all the traps around the area. He wanted to go and disable the ones that the students must've left inside the stairway, but there were way too many people walking around it, so he gave up.

<Alright, now that we're finished with the traps, how should we deal with the 40 students?> Evin asked.

<We'll wait for Bella to appear and take care of them all. We'll support her so she knows we're on her side… As for how, well, you can leave that to me,> the Voice said confidently. <But I'll need quite a bit of Weight energy.>

Evin switched the Air and Thought energy inside his core to Weight, and felt as the Voice's will began sending orders to it.

And as if on cue, a trap went off inside the entrance, followed by a student being blown away, mud all over his body. A wave of panic surged through the students, as shouts of confusion echoed through the fiery area.

"What the hell is happening?" A student who seemed to be the leader of this group shouted frantically.

Evin recognized him as one of the commoner students who had a mage as a parent and attended the combat class with him. His name was Dagan.

"I think he's already out," one of the students explained.

"Didn't he just enter the damn thing?"

"It's not him," a student who was closer to the stairway exclaimed. "It's that noble girl! Bellaslayn Borna."

Understanding that they were trying to ambush the wrong person, Dagan's face fell and he immediately dashed to the entrance.

"Lady Bellaslayn, this is a misunderstanding! Please hear me out!"

Bella emerged from the stairway, her body covered in an armor made of mud. Evin could see that the whole thing was fluidly traversing around her body like a muddy river. It didn't look like a very effective form of protection at a glance, but Evin had a very deep knowledge about the adaptability and versatility of that armor. He was sure that Dagan was also aware of its capabilities.

"What the hell were you trying to do?" Bella asked with an annoyed scowl.

She looked around the area and despite noticing the 40 or so students who looked ready to fling a spell at her, her expression didn't change.

"Wait, wait. Before you make any conclusions, just hear me out," Dagan said, and noticing that Bella seemed willing to hear him out, continued. "We were trying to ambush someone who we believed was inside the trial, but I can assure you that it's not you who we're after."